Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing…

By acronyms I also mean the common ones such as UI, PDF, LASER, dpi, and GB.

Note: I am not getting into the differences between acronyms and abbreviations. This post is about the usage of parentheses for abbreviations.

While parentheses for holding additional information between the round brackets “(“ and “)” is fine, the use of parentheses for acronyms (including initialisms and other abbreviations) seems odd.

Yes, writers and editors have been using it for such a long time…but there seems to be a lack of parallelism. The information within the parentheses is always additional. But in the case of acronyms and abbreviations, the parentheses hold a shorter form.

So, shouldn’t there be a difference?

True, I can hear some shrill and coarse voices saying, “that’s not the end of the world”. Sure, I agree – it is not yet the end of the world. But take it as a suggestion and why not? We strive to improve quality through editing. This might help.

I felt that the round brackets are overloaded. They hold everything inside and they play a part in mathematics too. Therefore, I want to help the round brackets shed a slight load!

My suggestion is to use a different type of symbol for acronyms instead of the parentheses. The curly braces “{ACRONYM}” or the square bracket “[ACRONYM]”? But these are used in equations a lot. The pipe symbol |ACRONYM| is used in programming statements. So that leaves us very little choice.

Here are some ideas that can be used. But it would involve creating a new keyboard character or additional typing.
___________
) ACRONYM (
___________
| ACRONYM |
_________
{ACRONYM}
___________
> ACRONYM <

Thus, I am forced to suggest round brackets but inverted. The new way of way notating acronyms and abbreviations will look as follows:

) ACRONYM (

This will be easy to remember and in time will be accepted as the norm.

The style guides of this world—)MSTP(, )IBM(, )APA(, )SPE(, and so on—should listen in. In case, this symbol is used elsewhere – then let us invent a new symbol.

If you have read this far, then you will provide your feedback or comments (I hope!)

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...

Sometimes (and that can mean maybe once an year, when I have had enough sleep, when my health is fine, when I don't have anything else to put the blame on, when there's nothing to watch on TV, when there is no gripping book to read, and when fate leaves me in a satisfactory mode), I blog on technical writing...